The Moley Prophet

LTA has just announced that new gantries would be set up at Upper Bukit Timah and would start operating from tomorrow onwards. Their reason is that speeds have fallen below the acceptable speeds to 20-30 kmph. This is totally ridiculous. I used to use that road daily to school, and the only times the traffic slows are the peak periods. I wonder how they calculate the average speed limit on such a road when the top speed averages about 60kmph.

Going through Upper Bukit Timah Road is the only route for people staying in Bukit Gombak, Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Upper Bukit Timah, and Hillview area to get to the city. Where else are these people going to go through if they do not use these roads? With average speed limits of about only 60kmph, and a winding and somewhat uneven road, I wonder how LTA arrive at the conclusion that the average speeds are unacceptable?

It is also impossible to ask those staying in these areas to take the public transport. Primarily due to the reason that there are only buses plying this road. The nearest train stations are all the way at Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak. Buses are not ideal either. Just like I wonder how they measure the average speeds, I also wonder how they calculate the average passenger numbers on the buses and trains.

SMRT and SBS have been insisting that their bus and train services are frequent enough to give a comfortable ride to all passengers. I would like to invite their top management to take the public transport for a week, during the usual peak periods from Monday to Sunday. There have been occasions when I couldn’t board the trains because they are so full, passengers are really squeezed like sardines. And during off-peak periods, trains come after ridiculously long waits of about 7 minutes per train. I would also like to know from SMRT, how is it that, 4 trains on the East-West line, with passengers changing to 1 single train on the North-South line could be comfortable for passengers. 2 of the trains coming from the city direction are in fact a full load.

Over 70% of statistics are made up on the spot, I wonder whether LTA together with the 2 public transport companies are part of them?